Mardi Gras Mask

With a few items lying around the house, you can create a unique Mardi Gras mask. You will need:
A mask template (I used one from here.)
Cereal box or any other thin cardboard box
Colorful pages from magazines and/or colored tissue paper
Ribbon
Any type of embellishment (craft jewels, stickers, pom-poms, rick-rack, etc.) and/or paint
Hole punch
Exacto knife
Glue
Scissors
Crayon/Pen

My daughter chose the mask template she wanted. I printed it, cut it out, and layed it on the cardboard to trace. To get her involved in the tracing, we colored the outside edges of the template with a crayon.

As a result, we had an outline to cut out. I used an Exacto knife to cut the eye holes. While I was cutting, my daugther was tearing the magazine pages into small pieces. I had to help her with this because she was tearing them too small.

When we were both finished, we covered the mask with glue and layed down the magazine pieces. It's ok to let the pieces run over the edges. They will be trimmed in a later step. Once the glue dried, we applied a layer of glue on top of the mask. This has a few purposes: 1. Seals down all the pieces, 2. Makes the mask sturdier, 3. Gives a uniform finish.

Once that coat is dry, the edges of the mask and the eye holes were trimmed of the excess magazine paper. We also punched holes on the sides to tie the ribbon.

Finally, the mask is ready for some spice. All I had on hand was paint so we added different shapes and designs. But anything can be used to embellish--stickers, sequins, beads, small pasta (color it with food coloring), rice (color it with food coloring), big craft jewels, feathers, Mardi Gras beads, etc. When it's dry, tie ribbon on each side.

Your reveler is ready for the big parade!